Sermon
and Worship Resources21st
Sunday after Pentecost"You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
...And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Mt 22:37

You, who alone is worthy of all love and adoration, cause me to not only
know your precious word, but let it become a medium through which I might encounter you in
the depth of my heart. You ever surround me with a sense of boundless love and
infinite wisdom. Through your Spirit, strengthen the bond of love between us every day.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and declare your great love for Him in all the earth!

I think someone had
too much time on their hands. That’s what I think. Someone – some
unknown person centuries ago – carefully examined the books of Exodus
and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy and determined that there were
exactly 613 different commands God gave the people of Israel. And what’s
worse, there were people who verified the correct count!

Clearly they didn’t
have enough to do!

But there is no doubt
that there were plenty of laws from which Jesus could have chosen. Which
is the greatest commandment?

In some ways, it’s too
bad we are so familiar with the answer Jesus gives. I say that because
it would be a fruitful exercise for each of us to read through the law
and come up with our own answers.

I’m convinced Micah
did that. He summarized the law by saying God requires us to “act
justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly” with our God (Mic. 6:8).
David came up with his own list of 11 things in Psalm15. Some would
argue that, in fact, the Ten Commandments were the first attempt to
simplify and prioritize the numerous laws God had given, and that their
role in the scripture is to invite us to do the same – to find ways to
summarize them for ourselves.

But since Jesus has
done such a good job, we think there is a “right” answer and a “wrong”
answer to the question. We are tempted to “push the buzzer” and yell out
the answer rather than experience the benefits that come from the
process of thinking it through for our selves.

So let me try a
different question. Of all the things Jesus said, what do you
think is the most important?